An Overview of Topology Mapping Algorithms and Techniques in High‐Performance Computing

High‐performance computing (HPC) applications are becoming increasingly demanding in terms of computing power. This chapter provides an overview of topology mapping algorithms and techniques in HPC. It surveys several techniques and algorithms that efficiently address this issue: the mapping of the application's virtual topology onto the physical topology. First, it presents an overview of the problem. Then, it shows a possible formalization of the problem. It also presents the existing algorithms that can yield solutions to the topology mapping problem. The chapter details the various mapping enforcement techniques that application programmers can use in order to enforce the mapping computed by the dedicated algorithms. It also describes the existing software implementing the algorithms and the techniques. Lastly, the chapter presents a set of open problems and research issues that need to be addressed in order to pave the road to Exascale.